This week, however, I can offer no such consensus. The replies to Randy's question were so varied that I can only allow them to speak for themselves. I'll feature replies from both numerical extremes and a number of those in the middle, but it appears that readers like Randy will simply have to sift through this information and see what appeals to them.

I will add that some of the formats outlined below were advocated because they make keeper leagues more manageable and/or competitive, while others were suggested as ways of making keeper leagues truer to the spirit of the NFL. What you want to accomplish with your keeper league is of course a matter for you and your league mates to determine. But whether your purpose is to mimic the NFL as thoroughly as possible or simply to complicate things from a strategic standpoint by incorporating a keeper component, you will almost certainly find something useful in the responses below.

I'll start with what Jay's league does because his approach is one that could easily be adopted by many standard redrafter leagues without causing much stress or confusion:

We do not play in a true keeper league, but wanted to reward owners who had the insight (luck?) to draft a break-out star. We carry a 17-man roster and allow each owner to keep one player under 3 conditions: 1) he was selected in the 8th round or later; 2) he remains on a team's roster all year; and 3) he must be QB, RB, WR, or TE - no kickers or defenses. This system has allowed years in which Clinton Portis, Jeremy Shockey, and Chad Pennington were keepers. In Pennington's case, [he was kept this year by the owner who drafted him last year] knowing he had a broken hand but if the team could survive without him, he would be a great keeper this year. It also makes for a lot of projections in the later rounds.

We have a rookie draft about 4 weeks before the regular draft each season, and we've been doing the keeper format for 3 years now. In our league, you can keep up to 3 players, with each counting towards a draft spot. So if an owner decides to keep 3 players from the previous year's team, his first pick from the player pool would be in the 4th round. Anyhow, if an owner keeps his pick from the rookie draft the entire season, he can choose to keep that player next season (which would allow the owner 4 keepers instead of 3) and the rookie keeper counts as the 12th pick in the following year's draft.

In regards to keeper leagues, I am currently in leagues that follow four different formats: 1) a Dynasty league (keep ALL players year-to-year); 2) a 'must keep' 3-player Keeper league; 3) a league in which each owner can keep UP TO 3-players - this makes it very interesting as those who keep less than 3 have first crack at available free agents/rookies until they equalize at the 3-players threshold, then the draft proceeds as usual; and 4) a redraft league. I've been involved in FF for years - including IDP leagues - and have been a commissioner, so I can view this issue from all sides.

My favorite is the Dynasty league format, though as the owner with Smokin' Ricky Williams, Michael Bennett, Stephen Davis/DeShaun Foster, I clearly (and very painfully!) see the drawbacks of this system. Of course injured stud players must be kept for next year, yet that severely hampers my available roster space for waivers this year.

Dynasty makes FF teams similar to the past in "real" sports, where star players routinely stayed with one team for the majority of their careers. My opinion is this makes an owner more comfortable and attached to the team, and such owners are likely to stick with their leagues longer. Weekly waivers & an annual draft with order determined by record/least points scored gives sub-par teams the ability to become competitive rapidly.

My second favorite would be the "up-to" 3-player keeper format. This past year another owner and I kept only 1 player each (Ahman was mine) and I was able to pick up Domanick Davis & Chad Johnson BEFORE other owners drafted. I've gone from a miserable 5-11 team to the playoff hunt, so this in-between version offers the ability to very quickly improve the team while still keeping some favorite players.

Our league uses a very large roster, and flexible lineups, as a direct result of our 'Keeper' rule. Our owners are allowed to select 4 offensive and 4 IDP keepers on a 22-player roster, to be named 2 weeks prior to the next draft. Why so many, so late? Three main reasons. First, it cuts nearly two hours off of the draft day work (least important, unless you're running the show). Second, we draft in reverse order of the previous season's finish (see NFL draft), and with the late deadline, this arrangement allows us to make trades throughout the off-season. And lastly, flexible lineups (rules allow for a minimum lineup and then 3 offensive players, plus 2 IDP, of owner's choice) keep any one owner from cornering the market on a particular position. It all adds up to parity, and it works! Each of our 12 teams have made the playoffs, at least once, in the last three seasons.

I play in an IDP league. We have 14 owners and hold 40-man rosters. When we have our cut downs in July, we keep 25 players on our rosters, with a 15-round draft, based on record (1st round has 8 lottery picks for the bottom teams). Pure and simple, this is closest to what actual NFL teams deal with every year, and we try to keep our league as close as possible to "real play". We do have one major difference; we do not have free agency, except for the period immediately following the draft up to the night before the first game. Once the season starts, the rosters stand, and because we are so large in teams and players used, there is no allowance for free agency.. Trades are allowed until the 10th week, but all teams must have 40 (43) players. Injuries are part of the game, so tough luck if you lose 4 or 5 to the I/R. When I came into the league 8 years ago, the league had just gone from 12 to 14 and I had to draft my team like expansion teams, from other rosters (first 5 picks) and the rest from the draft. This league has been around for 14 years, and while we may lose an owner every now and then, all are hardcore football fans and fantasy players. It makes for the best in fantasy football.

True keeper leagues need to mirror the NFL itself. Once a player's value becomes too high, teams have to let him go and look to younger talent. We use an auction to select the first 10 players on our rosters. Each owner has $100 to spend on those 10 players. The amount spent on a player in the auction is his value. All players selected after the initial 10 per roster are drafted and valued at $1, which doesn't count toward an owner's $100 auction cap. Pick-ups during the season are also valued at $1. There is no cap during the season itself. The cap is only for drafting purposes. If a player plays in more than half of the NFL team's games that year, his value goes up $4 for next year's auction. If he plays in less than half, his value goes up $2. At the next year's auction, the players values are adjusted prior to the auction and an owner can freeze players on his roster and deduct the new value from the $100 he has to spend. Any players not frozen are available in the auction and their value is based on the new bid. This places a cap on high-priced players like Moss and Holmes, because their value rises from year to year and it is harder to fit them and 9 other players under the $100 cap. Low value finds like Boldin and Droughns can fit under your cap for years to come. This also makes trading more interesting.

Example - You could be out of the playoff hunt and trade say Priest Holmes ($40) to a contender, for Byron Leftwich ($3) and Kevin Jones ($4). Holmes would cost you almost half of your cap money ($44) at next year's auction, while you could:

1. Easily freeze Leftwich ($7) and Jones ($8)
   
   
2. Have plenty left to freeze other veterans on your roster, Joe Horn ($14) and Clinton Portis($18) and Javon Walker ($12)
   
   
3. Drop overpriced others, Drew Bledsoe ($12) and Steven Davis ($14); and
   
   
4. Still have $41 to bid on 5 other players to fill out your roster.

Keeper leagues that allow owners to keep players indefinitely, can allow teams to become lopsided for years to come. Limiting teams to keep 1 or 2 star players works, but it isn't very fun knowing that you will probably never have a shot at many stars until they are past their prime.

I am the commish for a league in its 5th season. We expanded from 8 to 10 teams this year. We have a roster of 27 players, which more than helps cover the bye weeks. We have a cap of 10 years of contracts max per year, regardless of the number of players. So you can sign 10 players to 1-year contracts, 1 player to a ten-year contract, or any combination in between. We also do not allow resigning. Once a player's contract is over, he goes back into the draft. It definitely makes team owners think in detail on who to sign and for how long for following seasons.

I am the commish of a keeper league. My buddy and I decided to start up a keeper league, and we wanted a way to keep more than three or four guys. Our answer was that we would keep players in brackets based on their years in the NFL. We now keep 3 players that have played 1 season or that have played 13 or more seasons, 2 players that have played 2 seasons, 3 players that have played 3 to 12 seasons, 1 kicker, and 1 defense. We went with a 10-team league and each roster has 26 players on it, with the thought that we will have players on our team that we do not expect much from for a year or two.

We use a 28-man roster. Each week, we start 1 QB, 2 RB's, 2 WR's, 1 TE, 2 DB's, 1 LB, 1 DL, 1 KR and 1 K. 12 total. Our scoring system averages about 60 % offensive scoring and 40% special teams and defensive. This was in line with NFL averages a few years ago.

We allow teams to keep a starter at every starting spot. 12 players as listed above. We also allow 1 franchise player that costs the owner their first round pick in the following year's draft. We allow 1 rookie roster spot that doesn't cost any draft picks the following year. This encourages player development, and we are considering allowing a second rookie keeper without penalty.

If a team doesn't keep a full starting lineup we have a pre-draft free agency signing period that allows owners to draft veteran players to fill any starting roster positions that were left vacant. This happens just before the draft. Rookies have to come in through the regular draft.

Essentially all the teams have the same money because they can keep any players they want to keep as long as a starting roster spot is open. Managing rookies and Franchise players really help with the effect.

The formula that is most fair is 2 times your starting lineup minus one or two players. That way you are at least forced to make some tough calls. Anything more and you wont see many trades, pickups, or interest from teams that start slow.

I have tried to convert our league to a keeper for a couple of years, but the very question of how many players to keep prevents the transition from happening. People who won last year want as many as they can get, and the bottom feeders want only 1 or 2. Since we are a league that uses an auction, I thought we should allow as many keepers as you want if you can afford to take a cap hit equivalent to where the player finished in respect to the highest salary at that position.

One of our GMs suggested keeping as many as you want at 1.5 times what you paid for him last year. Interesting, but the obvious problem is what to do with waiver pickups?

In my 12-team, auction keeper league, we have 16-man rosters (8 starters, 8 reserves) plus an IR. There's a $100 salary cap that's only in effect for the draft. Each year that you keep a player, their salary increases $5. This negates the need for a strict limit on the number of keepers. We just let the market determine how many players an owner can afford to keep. Typically about 25-30 players are held over from year to year. Some teams will keep 3 or 4, others keep even fewer or occasionally none.

I'm in another league that's basically the same thing except the salary increase is much more severe. That league has a $50 salary cap, but the salary increase is still $5. That makes it much harder to keep players. So by adjusting the salary penalty, a league can pretty much control how many players can be kept.

We've actually thought about adjusting the salary increase by position. As it is now, no kickers or defenses are ever carried over and TEs have to reach super stardom before they're worth the extra cost. I haven't come up with an equitable solution yet, but we'll probably do something like that down the road.

Several years ago I was trying to come up with an idea for rewarding drafting an up-and-coming player. Our draft goes 19 rounds, and any player taken in the 12th through 19th rounds can be retained the following year at a cost of the draft slot that is 2 rounds higher than the round in which that player was originally drafted. You can not cut or trade that player during the year in order to retain for the next year, and you can only retain a player for 2 more years after you initially draft him. He moves up 2 draft spots each year, but you can't retain once his draft position is less than 12. For example, this year Ricky Williams was drafted in the 12th round. If he isn't cut or traded, he can be that owner's 10th round pick next year, but the year after that that he goes into the regular draft. This makes the draft exciting once you hit the 12th round and with a serpentine draft the player with the last draft pick in the 1st round gets the 1st draft pick in the 12th round. You can only retain 3 players and have to announce the retained players before the draft order is selected for the year.

Players like Priest Holmes, Deuce McAllister, Shawn Alexander, Kurt Warner, Mark Bulger, Santana Moss, Javon Walker, Andre Johnson have been drafted in the later rounds in past years before they hit stardom. Our system offers a big reward for taking a shot at a player and having to keep him on your roster for a year without him playing.

The roster size we've decided on this year is 35, starting 22 players each week (11 on O and 11 on D). This gives pretty much each crucial position a back up. For future prospects and deep sleepers we also have included a Taxi squad consisting of 5 players.

As for the number of keepers to keep every season, it all depends, of course, on your roster size, but as a general rule - think half. We keep 18 players out of our 35. This still gives the coming draft enough players to keep it interesting for about ten rounds.

Regarding trades, our 10-team league uses a voting approval process where accepted trades are subject to a 1-day voting period. Votes may be cast by the other eight members not involved, where at most 3 objections are allowed. Trades receiving 4 or more (50% or more of voters) objections are rejected. We have had several trades rejected this year, and this has made the traders mad. I would love to hear your readers' thoughts.